CFP: Popular Music and Identity Politics: Making, Archiving, Transmitting, and Receiving Radio

The SNSF Project “Broadcasting Swissness” (University of Basel, University of Zürich, Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts), in cooperation with Studienkreis Rundfunk und Geschichte e.V., invites submissions for a conference to be held at the University of Zürich from February 18 to 20, 2016. The theme of the conference is "Popular Music and Identity Politics: Making, Archiving, Transmitting, and Receiving Radio." Keynote speakers are Erika Brady (Western Kentucky University), Morten Michelsen (University of Copenhagen), and Markus Tauschek (Kiel University).

Call for Papers:

In the past few years research on the radio has been experiencing a revival in the social sciences and humanities. Interdisciplinary studies inspired by various approaches such as sound studies or the anthropology of the senses address cultural identity politics through the radio, such as the history of broadcasting stations, their programming, or sound archives as audiovisual heritage. Not least, they address the meaning of the radio for and within the everyday life world by investigating the reception of radio broadcasts or the shift towards online media.

The conference draws on current research to loom at the acoustic dimension of cultural politics or identity politics on and through the radio, including the actors, practices, discourses, and the institutional and societal contexts. It looks to bring together the different research threads within the socials sciences and humanities on identity politics, popular/folk music and the radio as a research theme. Researchers are invited to send proposals that deal with the radio ethnographically, in case studies, theoretically, from historical or contemporary perspectives, or by applying artistic or museological approaches. Above all, in addition to scholars from folklore/social and cultural anthropology or related fields, researchers from neighboring disciplines are especially welcomed to send abstracts. Acoustic contributions will also be considered and may be included in papers.

Submission Details:

Conference languages are German, English, and French.

Interested colleagues are invited to send proposals with an abstract of 300 words (maximum), a short CV, and technical requirements via email to: